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Title 46 — ShippingRelease 119-73

§10506 Trusts

Title 46 › Subtitle Subtitle II— - Vessels and Seamen › Part Part G— - Merchant Seamen Protection and Relief › Chapter CHAPTER 105— - COASTWISE VOYAGES › § 10506

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

An employer may take deductions from a seaman’s pay if the seaman agrees in writing and two rules are met. The money must go into a trust set up only to help that employer’s seamen and their families (or pooled with seamen and families from other employers), and it must be kept in trust. The trust can use the original money, the interest it earns, or both to pay seven kinds of benefits: medical or hospital care; pensions for retirement or death; life insurance; unemployment; pay for work-related illness or injury; sickness, accident, and disability payments; or to buy insurance that provides any of these.

Full Legal Text

Title 46, §10506

Shipping — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

section 10505 of this title does not prevent an employer from making deductions from the wages of a seaman, with the written consent of the seaman, if—
(1)the deductions are paid into a trust fund established only for the benefit of seamen employed by that employer, and the families and dependents of those seamen (or of those seamen, families, and dependents jointly with other seamen employed by other employers, and the families and dependents of the other seamen); and
(2)the payments are held in trust to provide, from principal or interest, or both, any of the following benefits for those seamen and their families and dependents:
(A)medical or hospital care, or both.
(B)pensions on retirement or death of the seaman.
(C)life insurance.
(D)unemployment benefits.
(E)compensation for illness or injuries resulting from occupational activity.
(F)sickness, accident, and disability compensation.
(G)purchasing insurance to provide any of the benefits specified in this section.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Revised sectionSource section (U.S. Code) 1050646:599 section 10506 permits deductions to be made from wages of seamen on coastwise voyages if the deductions are to be used for the benefit of the seamen or their families.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

46 U.S.C. § 10506

Title 46 — Shipping

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73